Hi Everyone!
We just got back last night from a 8 night 9 day stay at the CR. We arrived mid morning and had no problem checking in early. We were in the tower on the 11th floor. MK view. Fantastic view from the balcony. I cannot believe how close the castle is from the CR! The fireworks were fabulous just sitting outside on the chair. One complaint on the balcony chairs is you cannot just sit on them and view the castle without either leaning down or proping yourself up on something. The railing just hits right where your head is. But didn't stop us from enjoying anything! We also watched the water parade from our room and you can see it at the poly and the GF and then heading towards us. You can just bearly hear the music but still fun to watch without ever leaving your room. I do suggest you going down to the beach to watch it closer as it's so much better close up. We were on the 11th floor and it seemed the next few floors up big black birds would gather on the balcony railings
. One night we were coming back on the monorail during wishes and saw the 4th floor view area and it was packed with people also it looked like people were gathering on each floor stairway areas to watch and some were pretty crowded as well.
The rooms are fresh clean and new! I loved the look of the room. The room felt big too with lots of space. The sinks do stink! The water doesn't drain properly on them. Didn't seem to be a lot of storage or drawer space. Not enough hangers. Not enough counter space until you want to reach to the floor for a shelf. The beds are super comfy! We all slept well. The sofa does open out into a twin size bed with sheets. Never had a problem with the temp in the room. We were on the Chef Mickey's side and every morning we were woke up by the loud sounds coming from below. I wouldn't have switched as my son just loved me to lift him up so at any time he could go look at Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale and Donald. That was such a nice perk!
This hotel is good. We got a wake up call and I answered it fast to not wake up my son and hid it under the pillow. 15 minutes later we got a knock on the door about our wake up call. whooppss
Let's see................we got towel animals! My first time with them and they were awesome! Susanna our housekeeper made us a rabbit, two birds in a canoe and a funny looking little guy.
The monorail was always pretty quick and let me tell you it was so nice to take a break during the day and be back in your room in like ten minutes from the the time you decide to leave the park. First stop off and we didn't mind the 20 minute jaunt around it was fun taking the monorail ride!
The pool was never crowded. Really the day we arrived in the afternoon it was just us. The slide is fantastic! My son who is four cannot swim but with floaties he was allowed to go down and became a swimming maniac. I also ordered from Magical Beginnings and that came in our room the second day while we were at CM. I ordered the mickey mouse sand kit and that was great. My ds spent a lot of time on the beach playing in the sand and us on the hammock. We ate at the pool sand bar and the food took forever but it was a cm's first day. It was pretty good. We took it over to a table with an umbrella just sat and ate while looking over the lake and pool.
Chef Mickey's we did for breakfast and dinner. Both times were excellent. From the food to the service. We even bought the photo package after I swore this trip I wasn't going to buy any more.
We bought things at the parks and had them delivered to the gift shop and everything was there and ready when they said.
The CR has a great selection of pressed penny machines. My ds loved adding to his collection.
I had heard about how the food and fun center wasn't always clean or small or something but we found no complaints with it. The food was excellent and it seemed clean. We would plop down and watch a disney movie while we ate and they had crayons and disney coloring sheets for kids. All the kids meals came in mickey mouse shaped plates. Everyone was very nice.
We didn't play in the arcade but just took a look.
We used the buisness center to ship a package home
oh yeah too much shopping. They were fantastic. Helped us with a box, tape, etc.
The baggage service - valet left a lot to be desired. We had two dealings with them where we felt they were rude. On the other hand we also had two dealings with them that were fantastic! So go figure. Depends on the person maybe.........................
The front desk/conceirge service was great. Also very helpful and quick.
The bus service was slow - very slow at times. We waited over 45 minutes for a CR bus to show up at Mgm. Same thing from DTD. They were not that packed just need to run more of them.
Also they had an electrical problem in the South Wing and everyone was moved out over to the north wing. I do know they got it fixed pretty quickly because we saw people back in the south wing. People were complaining at the front desk about the move.
No construction at all going on that I could see.
The shops were nice and well stocked.
If anyone has any questions - i'd be happy to answer.
!!) 
I am keeping my fingers crossed because it all depends if my hubby gets his promotion. So keep your fingers crossed for me. 
